Mississippi State held their first scrimmage of the fall Thursday afternoon and while no stats or scores were kept head coach Dan Mullen crowned the defense as the winning squad.

Mullen stated that the positive sign for him about the defense was they were fighting all day long and even if they surrendered a big play to the offense they responded with one of their own on the nest.

"We didn't keep score but if we would the defense would have won today," Mullen said. "I thought the defense performed better than the offense today. As a whole, we made a couple of mistakes that were bigger mistakes that we've got to get fixed. But for the most part I thought the defense won the scrimmage."

Mullen estimated that the first unit went 55-plays on Thursday while the second team saw 45-reps in a variety of situations.

Mullen admitted that he had higher expectations for the offense than was evidenced on the field during the scrimmage.

"I was hoping the offense would have performed a lot better than they did and execute at a higher level," Mullen said. "They were a little hurky-jerky."

Mullen went into the initial scrimmage searching for playmakers on offense. Two such players emerged in freshman wide receiver Chad Bumphis and sophomore running back Robert Elliott.